Email messages often have associated computer files or other content items including attachments such as images, or other computer files. Such content items may be transmitted with the e-mail message itself or may be referenced in the e-mail document using a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) which identifies a content item such that it may be retrieved from a network such as the internet or some other source. Where attachments are referenced by an e-mail, the content must be obtained from an appropriate source prior to being displayed.
Email attachments are often processed before they are transmitted wirelessly to a handheld communication device. Such processing typically reduces the size of the attachments, relative to the size of the original content items. For example, images are often down-sampled using a transcoder to reduce their size.
Accordingly, prior to transmitting an attachment to a wireless communication device, content items may need to be retrieved and/or processed for transmission.
Like reference numerals are used in the drawings to denote like elements and features.